Let’s be honest about what a second referendum means

A second referendum would be a political abomination. And it’s about time more of us said so.

We need to get real about what a second referendum would mean. If we have another referendum in which Remain is an option on the ballot paper, it will be one of the few times in the history of British democracy that the British people voted for something and it didn’t happen.

It will be the first time we made a clear, mass democratic choice and the political class turned around to us and said:

‘Sorry, you can’t have that. You have to vote again.’

The precedent this would set would be dreadful. It would rip up the democratic contract itself. It would rupture the bond that exists between the people and the political class — the bond that says that when we make a decision, they act upon it. Democracy cannot function if this bond is broken.